History Literature / TheTwits

* BadassBeard: Averted by Mr. Twit. He only ''thinks'' it makes him look wise and manly, especially since it's prone to keeping bits of food in it to be eaten later.

* BeardOfEvil: The book starts with an in-depth description of how foul Mr. Twit's beard is.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Inverted. ''Goodness equals beauty.'' The narration states that people who are ugly can still have beauty shine through if they have pleasant thoughts and demeanor, accompanied by a drawing of such a person.
-->''"You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."''

* BodyHorror: The shrinks is pretty much a child's introduction to this trope
* BrickJoke: See ChekhovsGag below.

* ChekhovsGun: Hugtight glue. Mr. Twit first uses it to catch the birds for his and Mrs. Twit's Bird Pie every Wednesday, then Muggle-Wump, his family and the birds use it in Muggle-Wump's plan to get revenge against the Twits by turning their living room upside-down.

* DeadpanSnarker: The narrator, ''in spades''.
** Mr. Twit himself, to a lesser extent.

* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The Big Dead Tree.

* TheHero: Muggle-Wump.

* KarmicDeath: Both the Twits. See DeathByIrony.
* KickTheDog: At least half of the book consists of this trope.

* LemonyNarrator

** When Muggle-Wump commands his family and the birds to take up the Twits' carpet and stick it onto the ceiling, they respond with "He's dotty!" "He's balmy!" "He's batty!", etc. This is much the same dialogue that the Golden Ticket tour group has as they wonder at Mr. Wonka's sanity during the boat ride in ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory''. The sentence "But there was no saving her now." also appears in both books — referring to blueberry!Violet in ''Factory'' and the Balloonacy-imperiled Mrs. Twit here. And the ostensible cure for the shrinks -- stretching her back to size -- is similar to what is actually done to the miniaturized Mike Teavee.
** The Roly-Poly Bird first appeared, along with Muggle-Wump, in Dahl's ''The Enormous Crocodile'' and later shows up as a GuestCharacter in the poetry anthology ''Dirty Beasts''.

** The Roly-Poly Bird first appeared, along with Muggle-Wump, in Dahl's ''The Enormous Crocodile'' and later shows up as an UnexpectedCharacter in the poetry anthology ''Dirty Beasts''.

* OnlySaneMan: PlayedForLaughs in the chapter "Four Sticky Little Boys." When said little boys are are superglued to the Twits' tree by the seats of their pants and Mr. Twit decides to [[IAmAHumanitarian bake them in a pie in place of the birds they scared off]], the fourth of them is the only one smart enough to think, "[[FridgeLogic Wait a minute, if we're only stuck by the seats of our pants, why don't we just slip out of them and get the heck out of here?]]".

* {{Gaslighting}}: The titular dysfunctional couple do it to each other to begin with (for example, adding a small segment to the bottom of a walking stick every day to make the wife think she's shrinking), and have it spectacularly turned on them at the end, culminating in their DeathByIrony.

* TheAlcoholic: In two separate scenes, Mr. Twit drinks mugs of beer.

* BlackComedy: Lots of this throughout, particularly in the opening stretch.

* GivingThemTheStrip: Early on, a group of boys get stuck in a tree because Mr. Twit has coated the tree limbs with glue to catch birds for dinner. When he threatens to eat the boys instead, the only thing they can do to escape is slip out of their pants.

* EvilMakesYouUgly: Mrs. Twit was once a beautiful woman, until she started thinking ugly thoughts all the time, which made her ugly on the outside. According to the narrator, a person who constantly thinks bad thoughts will eventually turn ugly, while a person who always thinks good thoughts [[BeautyEqualsGoodness will always seem pretty]][[GoodnessEqualsBeauty no matter how lacking their looks may be]].

->''What I am trying to tell you is that Mr. Twit was a foul and smelly old man.''
->''Mrs. Twit was no better.''

* EvilMakesYouUgly: Mrs. Twit was once a beautiful woman, until she started thinking ugly thoughts all the time, which made her ugly on the outside. According to the narrator, a person who constantly thinks bad thoughts will eventually turn ugly, while a person who always thinks good thoughts [[BeautyEqualsGoodness will always look pretty.]]

* TrademarkFavouriteFood: Bird Pie is this for Mr. Twit, and he is not happy when he doesn't get to have it, especially when the Roly-Poly Bird warns the other birds not to roost in the Big Dead Tree or whatever else Mr Twit covers in glue.

* ChildHater: As if Mrs. Twit wasn't repulsive enough already, she hits small children with her walking stick and plants thistles and nettles in her garden to keep them out.

* MythologyGag

* NoNameGiven: Muggle-Wump's wife and two children.

* OhCrap: Mrs. Twit when she feels something cold and slimy (a frog) crawling over her feet while she's in bed. It was put there by Mr. Twit to get back at her for dropping her glass eye in his beer.

** The Roly-Poly Bird first appeared in Dahl's ''The Enormous Crocodile'' and later shows up as an UnexpectedCharacter in the poetry anthology ''Dirty Beasts''.

--> -- '''The narrator'''

* EvilMakesYouUgly: Mrs. Twit was once a beautiful woman, until she started thinking ugly thoughts all the time.

* IJustWantToBeFree: Muggle-Wump and his family.

* NoNameGiven: Muggle-Wump's wife and children.

* OhCrap: Three of the four boys stuck in the Big Dead Tree when Mr. Twit decides to cook them by scaring away the birds for his Bird Pie.

* FeatheredFiend: Inverted. The Roly-Poly Bird and the other birds are instrumental to the escape of the monkey family and the turning of the Twits upside down.

* OnlyOneName: Mr. and Mrs. Twit are only ever referred to as such, with no mention of either of their given names.
* OnlySaneMan: PlayedForLaughs in the chapter "Four Sticky Little Boys." When said little boys are are superglued to the Twits' tree by the seats of their pants and Mr. Twit decides to [[IAmAHumanitarian bake them in a pie in place of the birds they scared off]], the fourth of them is the only one smart enough to think, "[[FridgeLogic Wait, if we're only stuck by the seats of our pants, why don't we just slip out of them and get the heck out of here?]]".